Top federal bureaucrats accused of botching harassment complaints

Two senior bureaucrats at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency — including the agency’s president — were accused of gross mismanagement for “purposely” circumventing the process for investigating harassment complaints against another member of the management team.

Public Sector Integrity Commissioner Joe Friday, whose office investigates allegations of wrongdoing in the federal bureaucracy, concluded former CFIA president Bruce Archibald and vice-president Gérard Étienne failed to take appropriate action to “deal fairly and thoroughly” with three serious harassment complaints lodged against a senior executive who reported directly to Archibald.

Friday said they breached the process by involving the senior executive at the